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Famous Belgians
Aug. 9th, 2019 08:23 pmBook Review: The Collapse of Globalism, by John Ralston Saul
The inside blurb begins: "John Ralston Saul is an award-winning essayist and novelist, considered Canada's leading public intellectual." I reflected that I couldn't name any Canadian public intellectuals, but then again, precious few in the UK either. The New Statesman agrees.
Anyhow, this was a random work book sale selection, chosen in the hope of shedding light on the state we're in. It turns out that this book was written in 2005, and this is a reprint with additions in the prologue and epilogue. On that basis, much of what it says feels remarkably prescient.
But really, Saul is taking a much longer view from the post-war period. He ties the beginning of the Globalisation period with the breaking of Bretton Woods and the flotation of the US dollar, setting in train a seemingly inevitable process. There's a good deal of scepticism on all manner of increasingly evangelical economic positions through the 70s, 80s and 90s; he defines "peak Globalism" at around 1995, after which he finds evidence of some countries defying the (by then) economic conventions and having some success in doing so (though in general, having been forced into such actions by economic catastrophe).
He ends up with a discussion on negative and positive nationalism. The first of these is readily recognisable; as a species we've been there many times before, and there's a danger we are heading that way again right now. The rise of multinational corporations was expected to render nation states somewhat irrelevant: the extent to which that has happened seems limited to the ability of such corporations to find creative ways of minimizing their tax liabilities. Positive nationalism is more difficult to define, but it involves a sense of community and localism, yet open to the world beyond. In the ubiquitous online world, community is no longer a geographic phenomenon; it's easier to have shared interests when you have the whole world to choose from, but localism requires being good neighbours, over which your choice is more limited. Saul may well have diagnosed the problem, but he seems some way from offering a solution.
The inside blurb begins: "John Ralston Saul is an award-winning essayist and novelist, considered Canada's leading public intellectual." I reflected that I couldn't name any Canadian public intellectuals, but then again, precious few in the UK either. The New Statesman agrees.
Anyhow, this was a random work book sale selection, chosen in the hope of shedding light on the state we're in. It turns out that this book was written in 2005, and this is a reprint with additions in the prologue and epilogue. On that basis, much of what it says feels remarkably prescient.
But really, Saul is taking a much longer view from the post-war period. He ties the beginning of the Globalisation period with the breaking of Bretton Woods and the flotation of the US dollar, setting in train a seemingly inevitable process. There's a good deal of scepticism on all manner of increasingly evangelical economic positions through the 70s, 80s and 90s; he defines "peak Globalism" at around 1995, after which he finds evidence of some countries defying the (by then) economic conventions and having some success in doing so (though in general, having been forced into such actions by economic catastrophe).
He ends up with a discussion on negative and positive nationalism. The first of these is readily recognisable; as a species we've been there many times before, and there's a danger we are heading that way again right now. The rise of multinational corporations was expected to render nation states somewhat irrelevant: the extent to which that has happened seems limited to the ability of such corporations to find creative ways of minimizing their tax liabilities. Positive nationalism is more difficult to define, but it involves a sense of community and localism, yet open to the world beyond. In the ubiquitous online world, community is no longer a geographic phenomenon; it's easier to have shared interests when you have the whole world to choose from, but localism requires being good neighbours, over which your choice is more limited. Saul may well have diagnosed the problem, but he seems some way from offering a solution.